Today I took a few typewriters over to another house we have nearby (referred to as BRAVO – the main house as you might guess is ALPHA). I decided to place a Smith-Corona Silent inside the typing desk. I also took over the 1948 Royal Quiet De Luxe and my 1946 Smith-Corona Clipper. I’ll be bouncing back and forth between the two houses over the next several weeks. Just hate the thought of being without a typewriter.

Now I’m choosing which machines will accompany me on an upcoming writing retreat. ~TH~

Just got back from a two day writing retreat, zipping around my childhood stomping grounds. Caught up with some friends, got some writing done, and oh yeah… picked up a grungy, mostly functional office typewriter. It will be fully functioning soon.

Well, here we go down a rabbit hole I never thought I would enter; large business machines/typewriters. Due to a foolish glance through area craigslist-ings, I stumbled upon a business machine at a very fair price. The seller was about an hours drive away, and the weather was perfect for a Sunday drive.

Here we have the CANON AP-810 III. Looks just as sexy as it sounds, right?

I had a couple of days to research this animal before meeting up with the seller. To my surprise, there seems to be very little information about Canon business machines on the interwebs. That is to say, Canon typewriters from the 80s.

Lots of printers. Lots of copiers. Why so little on the AP series? These were built (I assume) to compete with the IBM Selectrics.

Like all great things from the dawn of the computer age, this thing is over-engineered, with more features than you can shake a stick at. And all clearly explained in the manuals (assuming you’re one of the engineers who designed the thing).

Be sure to read the copy. Then take a shower. Gah!

I can just hear the girlish giggling as the boss-man presented this new machine for his dainty workforce to figure out. I know he wasn’t going to train them on it. He had an important three martini meeting to get to!

This beast was presented to the business world in 1984 by my estimation. Gloria Steinem first published Ms. Magazine in 1972. Twelve years later? Um… uh…

My recent acquisition of a 1992 Smith-Corona SL480, and a EUREKA moment. I pulled the ribbon cart out and closed the lid- noticed that the critter would still type. Hmmm… If my ribbon cart runs out while I’m in the field (with electricity), I can simply load two sheets with a carbon in the middle. True, it then becomes an invisible, but hey! I can still type! Carry those carbons folks! ~TH~